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Scratching the surface

Bobcat’s best basketball is yet to come

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

There’s simply no way to overstate what Armonniey Thomas meant to the Marshalltown High School boys’ basketball team this winter.

Whether you watched the Bobcats play at the Roundhouse or simply saw the statistics in the next day’s newspaper, you have at least some level of understanding of how valuable Thomas was on the basketball court.

And according to head coach Michael Appel, he’s only just begun.

The gaudy numbers and eye-popping hops that Thomas put on display in his sophomore campaign in a Bobcat uniform are only the tip of the iceberg for the Times-Republican’s 2019-2020 All-Area Boys Basketball Player of the Year. The 6-foot point guard has started his quest to one day play professionally, putting basketball as his top priority from here on out.

“Basketball is like my life,” he said. “I love it. It’s the game to get out the emotions, things I’m going through, and I love it.”

T-R GRAPHIC

Thomas finished as the eighth-leading scorer in Class 4A for the Bobcats this past winter, averaging 19.3 points per game. He tied for ninth in steals as well (49), even though defense wasn’t always a priority for the Chicago native.

“Yeah, big change,” he said. “It’s way different. Better teammates, unselfish players. Back in Chicago it was always like a one-man team and it’s changed a lot out here. Not really defense, they were all about offense.

“We all play as a unit, as one group and not be selfish with the ball. Play as a team and don’t bring each other down.”

Thomas and his family moved from Harvey, Ill., to Marshalltown at the end of his sixth-grade school year. He began playing competitively as a third-grader in a seventh-grade division because he met the height requirement as well as the ability level.

“When I was in third grade, we didn’t have a third grade team where I grew up at so it was fifth-sixth and then seventh grade teams,” he said. “They thought I was good enough to play and I hit the height so I played with the seventh graders and I started as a third grader. I was like ‘I like it’ so I’m going to keep doing it, work hard on it and practice every day.”

In Appel’s first season as his alma mater’s head coach, he said he didn’t hesistate in putting Thomas in the starting lineup, and the rookie delivered with 10.4 points per game while leading the Bobcats in steals, finishing second in assists and third in rebounds.

“Ever since his freshman year he never shied away from the moment or ever felt like it was too much for him to handle,” Appel said, “and as a coaching staff we never felt that way either. We wanted to put him in that position to bring him up.

“He’s a guy that plays with an edge. He’s very competitive, he wants to win — almost too much at times to where he’s forcing the issue, but he’s young and he’ll learn to continue to get better at that and take what the defense gives him. But he does have that killer instinct where he wants to win and he’s going to play hard and do those things.”

You could see it on the court, and it’s reflected in the ridiculousness of the numbers. Thomas scored or assisted on 223 of Marshalltown’s 374 field goals this season, a whopping 59.6 percent. He recorded an assist on 66 of the rest of the team’s 157 baskets (44 percent), and literally led the Bobcats in every statistical category that wasn’t a shooting percentage.

Being the top player on a team that finished the year 4-19 overall attracted a lot of attention. And while he welcomes the challenge of being “the guy”, Thomas said he too got caught up in being the focal point of opposing defenses while still trying to lead his team to victory.

“To be honest I wanted to blend in (as a freshman) but as we started going I started getting better and better with the team,” he said. “It’s pretty hard when everyone has their eyes on you and you get face-guarded half the game and you can’t touch the ball and your teammates aren’t scoring.

“After the last four or five games last year I knew at the beginning of this season people were going to be watching.”

Thomas dropped season-high 25 points at Waukee in a 47-35 loss, and closed the 2018-19 regular season with 21 points in a home win over Urbandale. The Bobcats bowed out in the first round of substate play, but with the attention came added responsibility — both on and off the court.

This winter, various “team rules violations” forced Appel’s hand to hold Thomas out of the starting lineup twice — the same way he would any other player on the roster for the same infractions. Thomas didn’t get to play at all against against eventual 4A runner-up Waukee in front of his hometown crowd, and that was three games after coming off the bench to score a career-high 34 points against Fort Dodge.

“Armonniey’s slowly but surely learning it’s an everyday process,” Appel said. “It’s a business in how you handle yourself off the floor transitions onto the basketball court, so if you can do the right things every single day, act the right way, it’s just going to make you that much better on the floor. It’s a daily thing — we’ve got to go to class, we’ve got to treat people with respect — and those are all characteristics of the Bobcat basketball program that we’re instilling not just in Armonniey but everybody. We’ve got to do it the right way, or if you’re not going to do it you’re not going to play.

“Most importantly I’m a high school basketball coach and I’m trying to teach these kids the characteristics for them to be successful after they graduate from high school here. In Armonniey’s situation, he wants to be a basketball player, so those are the things we’re trying to work on.”

Thomas doesn’t wear his emotion on his sleeve while on the court, but his manner of playing is a direct reflection of his attitude and whether or not he’s in control of it. When he’s in rhythm and things are going good, he’s virtually unstoppable. His athleticism and quickness get him to the basket or maybe the free-throw line, his leaping ability opens up his mid-range jumper, and improved consistency will make him a more viable threat from the 3-point arc.

All of those things that make Thomas as good as he is already are only some of the aspects of the game that are going to make him as good as he can be.

“All this is because he’s the best player in the area, but his potential and how good he could be is through the roof,” Appel said. “We’re just scratching the surface right now and he’d be the first one to tell you that. I’m not saying anything that he doesn’t already know that I haven’t already told him. There’s just so much he could get better with and he wants that and we’re going to work to do that.”

“That,” according to Appel, “includes free-throw shooting, that includes finishing at the rim, getting to the free-throw line more, using your left hand, you can add that to the list. That all goes back to the basic fundamentals of things we need to work on and drill every single day to get better. And there’s no secret there, these are all things we’ve shared with him and said ‘if you want to be great, if you want to be one of the greatest to ever play here, these are the things we need to work on’ and he does and it’s about committing and buying into doing those things.”

By this season’s end, Thomas had attempted more shots than any other 4A player in the state, including those teams that played three games in the state tournament. Not all of them, according to both him and his coach, were by design.

Some of them were forced with defenders in his face, while some of them were downright the wrong play.

“Sometimes I shoot because I feel I have to,” Thomas shrugged.

“We tried not to, as a coaching staff and as a team, make it seem like ‘you’re the man, you’ve got to go do this, it’s all on you,’ but at the end of the day that’s I think maybe at times how he felt,” Appel said. “He felt a lot of pressure himself at times like he had to make the play and score. You look at our season and there would be times where we didn’t score for a quarter, so it’s just a matter of understanding how can I help my team put points on the board.

“It’s understanding the game, what we need, and as a sophomore he’s learning obviously but these next two years, once he puts all that stuff together it’s going to go a long way.”

Thomas is the only sophomore to win the T-R’s top boys basketball honor in its 16-year history, moving up from second-team selection a year ago. Meskwaki Settlement junior guard Taurice Grant is the only repeat All-Area first-team pick, and he’s joined by his classmate Victor Balderas after the Warriors went 18-5 and finished two games shy of state.

Gladbrook-Reinbeck senior guard Tyler Tscherter earned a promotion from the second team, while former honorable mention selections Ryan McLean from North Tama and Logan Bowie of East Marshall made the jump to the All-Area first team. BCLUW senior Treye Teske rounds out the first team, joining Balderas in their All-Area debut.

2019-2020 Times-Republican All-Area Boys Basketball Teams

Player of the Year — Armonniey Thomas, so., Marshalltown

Coach of the Year — Garrett Bear, Meskwaki Settlement

FIRST TEAM

Victor Balderas, jr., Meskwaki Settlement; Logan Bowie, jr., East Marshall;

Taurice Grant, jr., Meskwaki Settlement; Ryan McLean, sr., North Tama; Treye Teske, sr., BCLUW; Tyler Tscherter, sr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck

SECOND TEAM

Ethan Espenscheid, jr., East Marshall; Caleb Keigan, sr., West Marshall; William Kiburis, fr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck; Gabe Jones, sr., West Marshall; Emmett Roberts, sr., Meskwaki Settlement; Drew Runner, jr., East Marshall

THIRD TEAM

Avery Bryant, jr., GMG; Drake Kapayou, fr., Marshalltown; Lincoln Kingbird, sr., South Tama County; Eric Ommen, sr., East Marshall; Tiernan Wanatee, jr.,

Meskwaki Settlement; Mason Yantis, sr., BCLUW

Former T-R All-Area Players of the Year

2018-19 — Tátè Bear, sr., Meskwaki Settlement

2017-18 — Luke Appel, sr., Marshalltown

2016-17 — Joe Smoldt, sr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck

2015-16 — Joe Smoldt, jr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck

2014-15 — Camden Kickbush, sr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck

2013-14 — Zach Pierce, jr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck

2012-13 — Mitchell Boerm, sr., North Tama

2011-12 — Michael Newton, sr., West Marshall

2010-11 — Trent Trowbridge, sr., Marshalltown

2009-10 — Chanse Creekmur, sr., Marshalltown

2008-09 — Chanse Creekmur, jr., Marshalltown

2007-08 — Walker Seim, sr., East Marshall

2006-07 — Tyson Dirks, sr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck

2005-06 — Justin Green, sr., Eldora-New Providence

2004-05 — David Walters, sr., BCLUW

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